This relates generally to imaging devices, and more particularly, to imaging devices with anamorphic lenses and asymmetrical image pixels.
Camera modules having image sensors and lenses are commonly used in electronic devices such as cellular telephones, cameras, and computers to capture images. In a typical arrangement, an electronic device is provided with an image sensor with an array of square image pixels arranged in pixel rows and pixel columns. A lens is used to focus image light onto the image sensor. The lens must illuminate the full image sensor for a given field-of-view. In other words, an image sensor is placed at a distance from the lens such that the image circle of the lens at the location of the image sensor is large enough that the full image pixel array fits within the image circle. For this reason, the z-height of the camera module is limited by the largest diagonal dimension of the image sensor.
Image sensors commonly include image pixel arrays with more pixel columns than pixel rows. For example, standard image sensors include either four pixel columns for every three pixel rows for still image capture sensors or sixteen pixel columns for every nine pixel rows for video image capture sensors. Conventional camera modules using these types of configurations therefore have an increased z-height in order to locate the image sensor at a location at which all of the pixel columns fit within the image circle of the lens.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved camera modules with reduced z-heights that generate standardized still and video image output.